This invention relates to eye goggles, such as might be worn during swimming, skiing, and other sports.
Goggles, if such are to find wide acceptance, should be easily mounted in place on the face and removed, should be comfortable, and, preferably, should give the wearer a wide field of view. Goggles intended for swimming and aquatic sports should be light in weight, streamlined, and also provide a proper seal about the eyes and between the face and the goggles, to prevent water from entering the interior of the goggles and distorting the vision of the wearer. Goggles in the form of an eye mask extending continuously across both eyes and with a common seal generally are cumbersome, and tend to limit vision, particularly laterally. Further, with eye mask type goggles, if there is any leakage in the goggles, water enters a goggle interior which extends across both eyes.
A general object of this invention is to provide improved goggles, having an eye piece with a separate lens and supporting frame for each eye, and an inflatable cushion for each eye piece which provides a seal established between the eye piece and the face of the wearer.
A further general object is to provide, in goggles, air-inflated cushion means for establishing a seal between the wearer's face and a lens frame, and which further includes means carried by the goggles for establishing and maintaining air at the desired pressure within a cushion means.
Yet another object is to provide improved goggles which include a pair of eye pieces, one for each eye, and each eye piece including a continuous frame which extends in a course about a lens opening and rests against the socket structure or orbit which receives the eye in the human head, the goggles further including and an inflatable cushion comfortably establishing a soft but reliable seal between each eye piece frame and the wearer's face.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the frame, as well as the cushion which provides the seal, are each provided with inwardly and outwardly curving regions, extending in a direction from the nose to the temple, thus best to conform to the contour which is usually found about the socket of the human eye. The inflatable cushion member which is associated with each eye piece frame, while being preshaped to approximately conform to the contours of the face, on being inflated, and by reason of being soft and compressible, in operative condition provides a comfortable but secure water seal established about the eye piece.